Tag Archives: woe

I’ve lost 13lbs. I owe it all to Ruby, because with out that little Evil Eggplant, I never would have discovered the Keto Diet. I love keto, no I seriously love keto. I never thought I could -love- a diet, or a Way of Eating (WOE) as they call it. It seems so strange to me, someone who’s been so happy being fat…well…not always happy, but content at least…could LOVE a “diet”.

What is keto? It’s short for Ketosis….which is the act of the body burning it’s own fat for energy. Some people worry this is a starvation mode, but using a Keto diet keeps you healthy while allowing your body to burn it’s own fat stores. It’s a diet of high fat, low carb (between 20 and 50 per day)….People start to freak out when you talk about this diet, it’s very opposite of everything we’ve been taught was healthy or good for us. Eat fats? Eat whole cheeses? Eat meat? Don’t eat too many veggies or grain? What? You want me to eat….real butter? SAY WHAT?! But honestly, this works…and it works really well…and I feel AMAZING. Amazing enough I have to blog about the positive changes in my life since I started low-carb a month ago. I don’t want to get too much into the science of this diet, because I’m still very much learning myself.

My story…

On July 7th, I was diagnosed with Type 2 Diabetes. I was in the very early stages of this disease….I was early enough that it could be fixed, but it was already starting some very serious and concerning health issues. I was also diagnosed with very low Vitamin D, and a mildly fatty liver. What scared me most, was the Diabetes. I did NOT want to go on an injectable, and when my PA wrote me a RX for Bydureon I freaked out. No, it’s not insulin, but I was NOT going to be on an injectable. Something had to change in my life, and now. My other issue was high triglycerides…my other cholesterol levels were actually low. Hmm. Interesting, but makes a lot of sense. My diet was high in carbohydrates, and after a little research, I found high triglycerides were due to things like sugar and carbs. I knew what I had to do…I had to change at last, I had to drop the carbs and sugar if I wanted to live.

I have a lot of things working against me…my biggest is Polycystic Ovarian Syndrome. This wonderful little disease sets me up for weight gain…and diabetes…as well as infertility and things like acne and body hair growth, but that’s not what this blog post is about, so we’re going to focus on the first two: Weight Gain and Diabetes. I’ve never been able to lose weight easily thanks to this lovely little disease, and having recently gone through old photos of myself, I’ve notice as I started to become a woman, that’s when the weight started packing on, and wouldn’t come off. I can’t tell you how many diets I’ve been on, starting as early as 14. I have a very vivid memory of coming home after a summer of visiting my grandparents, and my mother being shocked at how much weight I gained, and instantly putting me on Weight Watchers…which didn’t really work. I know mom meant well…but yea. It didn’t work and I was miserable. And the weight never really came off.

I had some success over the years, and managed to grow into that fat over the next year or so with out gaining much more. The most successful diet I ever had was when I was 18. I became a vegetarian, and was taking diet pills. After returning to eating meat and dropping the pills, I of course gained all the weight back, plus some. I graduated at about 200lbs…and then slowly over the next 14 years packed on the pounds to be my highest weight at 264 when I got married.

After that, I yo-yo-ed back and forth between about 238 (for a very short time) to 250 before I moved down south, and gained 14lbs due to both lifestyle (do you know how hard it is to eat healthy down here? EVERYONE is overweight, which makes you less self conscious at the beach, but seriously…) and my hormonal condition worsening.

When I say I’ve done all the diets…I kinda mean it. Over the years I’ve done diet pills (Metabolife, Alley, among others I can’t recall the name of…), Weight Watchers, The Blood Type Diet, The Daniel’s Fast, Juicing, The Flat Belly Diet, as well as trying to eat Organic, and other combos of things people have said are healthy and work for them. Nothing’s worked, nothing’s been successful (except the Metabolife-Vegetarian combo, but the minute I stopped, back up went the weight). Anything I’ve tried I’ve gotten some results with, but the results were hard to maintain, and so was the diet.

Ok…enough about my diet history and health…here’s why I love keto…(yummy and does some kickass things for me!)

What makes Keto so different for me? I wake up every day excited for food. I’m excited to cook! I get to eat delicious things! I fricken LOVE steak….like I LOOOOOOVE steak. Steak is amazing. I love meat (sorry my vegan friends!). So a diet that wasn’t going to limit me in meat was a good thing, especially since I had to give up my beloved carbs. Meat, and cheese…yes please. Whole delicious cream? Oh yes…yes to that too. (Meat = 0 carbs btw!)

What a normal day looks like for me meal wise…

Morning coffee. We call it Bullet Proof Coffee…still not sure where the name came from… It’s coffee with butter and heavy cream in it…I love butter in my coffee, it’s seriously amazing. I’m not a big food eater in the morning, so I add a scoop of protein shake to mine.- Carb count = 3.

Lunch varies for me, depending on my mood. I usually pack leftovers from dinner…but I also pack lunch meat, cheese, and boiled eggs to snack on (though I’m needing snacks less and less as my blood sugar evens out). I can also be found with a salad (depending on mood), or a cheeseburger with bacon, no bun.

Dinner is my favorite meal…The night before last we had tacos….ground steak, green pepper, onion, cheese, and sour cream. It was DELICIOUS. We also used a product called Shiritaki, which is formed into noodles or “rice”. About 10 carbs in this.

I get to EAT! I get to eat GOOD food…did I mention we had cheesecake for desert, with whole whipped sugar free cream? No seriously, 0 carbs. (Swap real sugar for sweeteners)

I can eat like this…satisfy my inner fat kid…and loose weight…and loose inches!! And even when the scale doesn’t move, the measuring tape does.

Here’s some of the amazing things besides weight loss that has happened to me…

Illness…now it didn’t make me sick, but I’m talking the impact of getting sick now vs. getting sick before starting this WOE. My -wonderful- coworker used my desk and headset while she was sick and I was off…I got sick needless to say, but rather than feeling like death (I mean she was seriously sick with a head cold and fever), if you compare me to her? I’m dancing on air. I’ve a slightly sore throat and mild headache. My voice is in and out (which means I can’t work, no talky no worky on the phone)…but I’m feeling pretty good. A year ago, this would have taken me out for days…hell 6 months ago…3 months ago..

My blood sugar is WAY down. Post meals I’m at about 100 with NO MEDICATION…only about a month and a half later! Look at that. I’m managing a life long disease with no medication…medication that was painful for DAYS after injecting (hell I think I still have a lump from that damn Bydureon…I just don’t do well with it in my right leg…left was fine.)

My skin has cleared up…which means my hormones may be regulating. Which is amazing.

My periods are lighter, even with being on the pill. I’m interested to see how this continues after I’m off the pill in a year or so.

My tastebuds and sense of smell are stronger…still trying to figure out if this is a good thing. I could smell people entering a room before this started.

My brain fog is clearing.

I’m not tired all the time anymore. I honestly thought I had Lyme disease or hep-C before I made these changes I was so tired all the time.

My drive to do things is back. ORGANIZE ALL THE THINGS!

I’m happy again. So happy, and so full of life and energy

I can eat and feel full sooner and for longer. I feel satisfied! It’s so nice!

My knees don’t hurt like they use to! Neither does the rest of my body.

There have been so many positive changes after the first 2 weeks of this plan (won’t lie…induction kinda sucks). I woke up on day 15 and felt like a light was switched back on inside of me.

I defend this WOE. I had a hard time last week because of low LOW blood sugars. I was overly medicated. I had started off with Bydureon 1 time a week and 500mg of Metformin twice a day. My PA warned me to keep an eye out for this, he admitted to treating me thinking I wouldn’t change. He was happy to see he was wrong. So first I cut one of the metformin, then I cut the byudreon the next week…last week I was down to 1 metformin a day, and I was still experiencing blood sugar lows of 70-80 AFTER meals. I stopped the metformin…and 4 days later the extreme lows have stopped, and there have been no highs past 110….ANYWHO…I got into a talk with a coworker who’s diabetic. I don’t know him well, but a friend called him over because he’s been managing his diabetes for years.

He of course, told me Keto is terrible, and I should be having up to 40 carbs per meal…the thing is, that’s for someone who’s on medication. Yea, if I ate 40 carbs a meal, I wouldn’t be getting lows on my medication. I’d be “managing” the disease. I don’t want to “manage” this disease. I want to kick it’s ass. My goal isn’t healthy numbers ON medication…my goal is healthy numbers OFF medication. And since I’ve stopped my meds? BOOM healthy numbers. I swear, the education people are given when we’re diagnosed helps keep us ill. (I should post about my own experience in another blog…it was entertaining.)

People who tell me this isn’t healthy can blow me. My blood pressure is the lowest it’s been since I got on medication. My blood sugar is perfect. I feel so amazing. Everything we’ve been taught about being healthy has been BS. I love Keto, it’s given me my life back, and I could seriously talk forever about how much I love this way of eating.